Connecticut man convicted for decapitating landlord

A Hartford man was found guilty last week in the gruesome 2020 murder of his landlord.

Jerry Thompson, 45, decapitated his landlord, Victor King, with a samurai-style sword after King tried to evict Thompson from their shared residence on Asylum Avenue due to unpaid rent, CTInsider reported.  

King contacted Hartford police on July 15, 2020, to report Thompson’s threats, expressing his intention to file an in-person complaint. 

Later the same day, King called 911 to report further threats from Thompson.

Surveillance footage revealed Thompson parking his Jeep near the home on the same day, holding a “long object” as he walked toward the front door. 

He returned to his Jeep in different clothes around 20 minutes later and left the scene. Thompson was seen returning to the home that night at around 11:30 p.m.. 

The following day, Kin’;s neighbors and friends grew concerned when he didn’t respond to messages and calls and didn’t perform his usual tasks. Police discovered King’s body concealed under blankets in the kitchen, having suffered fatal injuries to his neck.

Following the discovery of King’s body, Thompson was located and detained by police in Hartford’s Keney Park, tracked via his cellphone. A samurai-style sword consistent with the injuries inflicted on King was found in Farmington River Park in Bloomfield during the investigation.

King, 64, had a sociology degree from Middlebury College and a career in information technology within the insurance sector in Hartford. 

Thompson took an unusual tack for his defense,  representing himself and declaring that he was a sovereign citizen — a term used by individuals who challenge the legitimacy of the U.S. government and its laws. Thompson is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 11 at the state Superior Court in Hartford. 

It’s not the only time a tenant has attacked their landlord with a sword.

In Vallejo, Calif., an 80-year-old landlord was stabbed with a sword in November when he attempted to evict several tenants who allegedly hadn’t paid rent on the property located on the 600 block of 3rd Street in years, NBC Bay Area reports.

The landlord, Kurt Lind, survived the attack, which may have claimed one of his eyes, but he allegedly shot and killed one of his attackers and wounded another during the altercation.

“They’ve been here for three years and wouldn’t leave. It’s taken him a long time to get into court and get an eviction notice,” Patrick McMillan, a tenant, told the outlet. “They found out about the eviction notice and figured if they killed him they couldn’t be evicted.”

A couple of weeks before the attack, Lind went to court to evict the tenants, KTVU reported.

The tenants were upset when they found out and allegedly decided to attack Lind, the outlet reported.

— Ted Glanzer